To name a few, he had that ankle injury against Philly in 2003 that carried over into the New Jersey series and led to one heck of a systematic embarrassment that included Joe and Co. strutting with pride regardless of the on court pasting because.... we were gonna draft Darko...

Last year there was the calf strain that was originally projected at a week and ended up lasting for 20 days...

After that he had a thigh/groin injury that lingered on from mid-march all the way in to the playoffs.

So no...I can't say I expect him to be right for the remainder of the year based on his history.

Sit Mr Big for game 4 in a hyperbaric chamber, Go home 2-2, best of 3 with 2 @ home.

Now to fully utilize our maybe 20% chance of winning game 4.

Go smaller for game 4 and run your asses off, you aren't going to coldly out execute a team down the stretch without C$. Sheed can handle Howard. Just don't foul him early, sit Sheed at the end of the first and let him do his thing with 1 or 0 fouls the whole 2nd 5/8ths of the game.

That match up is OK with me as long as Shard has to guard Sheed in the post on our side of the court. Unfortunately, I never saw that part of it.

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True that. Don't understand why Sheed is in foul trouble since Game 2 and Lewis is not when Sheed is 'matchup' on him on offense. Draw fouls on him like how they draw fouls on you, Sheed!

CB should not play game 4. Let him heal if we wanna go deep into the playoffs. Not the time to panic yet. We can still win Game 4 with Stuck as our starting PG. Have Tay run the point if necessary. Dress Dixon or Hunter since CB is out. Dress and play Amir for heaven's sake. Let Amir take on Lewis or Turk when he's in there. Just try him for at least 5 minutes. Hayes should be in street clothes.

Amir can't play the 3. He has no range (yes, I know about the 18 point game against Milwaukee a couple seasons ago), and he's way underdeveloped as a perimeter defender.

Hayes should be the 3rd SF, exactly as he is. Unfortunately, Flip still finds a way to play him. Jarvis has brought NOTHING.

As far as CB, I don't think it is a matter of resting him. He might be done for the playoffs. Playing him in Game 4 may not be a decision that the Pistons even have to make.

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So let Amir play the 4. Orlando plays two guys that are really 3's anyways. I think AJ's length will help him against Shard or Turkeyglue. Give him a shot. If it looks worse then Sheed flailing his arms trying not to trip over himself on a jab step while Shard drains another three; change it back.

The problem with Sheed matching up with Shard is we trade 2 for 3 and lose a point every time down. Then Sheed starts jacking threes to match him and it's game over. With Howard in the post; we have shyed away from going down there instead of forcing the issue and trying to draw fouls on him.

sometimes you guys kill me with being over-dramatic. let me get this out of the way - we had won 5 straight games, this is the postseason, teams are harder to play at home, orlando was bound to get all the calls after that clock scandal, we were without our all-star PG for nearly the entire game, we were due for a flat game, and we suck on wednesdays. seriously, i think some of you wouldn't be happy unless we went 16-0 in the playoffs. at least we took care of home and we're still up 2-1...if we can snag game 4 this series is over on tuesday at the palace.

let's face it, sheed sucked today. i'm sure flip didn't tell him to settle for poorly-angled turnaround bank shots near the 3-point line. and hey, i love max, but he sucked too. now do i wonder why he didn't really play much in the 2nd half? yeah, definitely...he could've at least checked rashard to start the 4th, but hindsight...yeah. and it was completely predictable that rip would have 6 turnovers...his shot was on when he wasn't trying to create for himself, which is why it sucks that he rarely realizes this.

stuck continues to be terrible at finishing layups, but he played an excellent game last night. he shot well and drew a lot of fouls while going 9-9 from the line. as soon as he learns to finish in the lane in traffic he is going to be lethal. and hey, like i said before put amir in to guard turk/lewis, but hermann didn't do that poorly. we wouldn't have won the game if amir played, and i can only imagine if he got switched onto howard how badly that would've gone.

i'll give orlando credit - they attacked early knowing they'd get the whistle. they made a lot of contested shots in the 4th quarter (and they were pretty well contested...c'mon that mo evans turn around J at the end of the shot clock? luck). they continuously ran that high pick-and-roll where howard illegally screens at the 3-point line and then shifts down low while taking out both of our defenders and it's never called, but hey if they don't call it keep doing it.

i give our guys credit for fighting back and pulling within 3, but too little too late. you can't get in a hole like that on the road and be down 10-12 all game and expect to win. let's look at the positives - stuckey got a LOT of playoff experience in a game that was a total throwaway. you saw his confidence grow as he started to post up nelson, and as he adjusted for howard's shot-blocking and shot over him. we were pretty much destined to lose once chauncey went out, so at least we got something out of it.

and yeah, maybe flip didn't do the best coaching job (how about an early timeout??), but i thought he was excellent in games 1 and 2 and has generally done a good job adjusting game-by-game in the playoffs so i'm not going to come down on him. he's already knocked jarvis out of the rotation and put afflalo back in, he's starting maxiell over dice, and he's trusting stuckey to get it done. to me that's pretty good so far.

i'll give orlando credit - they attacked early knowing they'd get the whistle. they made a lot of contested shots in the 4th quarter (and they were pretty well contested...c'mon that mo evans turn around J at the end of the shot clock? luck). they continuously ran that high pick-and-roll where howard illegally screens at the 3-point line and then shifts down low while taking out both of our defenders and it's never called, but hey if they don't call it keep doing it.

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I thought all VanGundy's lobbying would work against them but I guess the refs are about as dumb as they look.

GOOD JOB, hOGG usually a day off and a stiff drink calms everybody down....

We lost:

1. Billups didnt play in a key road game 2. We cant 'depend' on Sheed to MAN UP( I love to see him gone, but he's so dam good when he's good) 3. Flip should have called timeout after the M's first 5 pt run in the start of the 4th 4. We were not going to sweep.